ATG's fight purses compared to today

[BKM-2010]

I thought it would be interesting to see how much the old timers made in some of the biggest fights so that we could convert them to today's current dollars.

This convenient site can calculate it with the click of a button


Tyson vs Spinks earned him 22 million(biggest purse at the time)=43 million
Muhammad Ali in the Thrilla in Manilla made 6 million= 26 million today
Both Ali and Foreman made 10 million in their fight=47 million today

Just a couple of interesting ones to start. I bet Dempsey had some whicked earnings back in the day.

[BattlingNelson]

Dempsey had the first million dollar purse. I think it was for Carpentier, but I'm not sure.

Anyway that would translate into some 14M today according to the link.

[Scott9945]

Dempsey had the first million dollar purse. I think it was for Carpentier, but I'm not sure.

Anyway that would translate into some 14M today according to the link.

I'm going on memory rather than research, but I think Dempsey-Carpentier was the first million dollar gate with a crowd of over 90,000. Dempsey may have made that much in the Tunney fights.

[BattlingNelson]

I'm going on memory rather than research, but I think Dempsey-Carpentier was the first million dollar gate with a crowd of over 90,000. Dempsey may have made that much in the Tunney fights.

I think it was before the Tunney fights, but I'm going by memory as well lol.

I remember reading somewhere that Kearns gave Dempsey a purse of 999.999 and then, in a great PR stunt, Dempsey gave Kearns a dollar and Kearns gave Dempsey a sevenfigured cheque.

[BKM-2010]

I'm going on memory rather than research, but I think Dempsey-Carpentier was the first million dollar gate with a crowd of over 90,000. Dempsey may have made that much in the Tunney fights.

I do know that Dempsey got about 700.000 in the first Tunney fight.

[Bundana]

It was actually Tunney, who got that million dollar check.

His cut in the 2nd Dempsey fight came to $990.000 - so he gave Tex Rickard $10.000 in exchange for a one million dollar check.

The first boxer to get a full million dollar purse was Sonny Liston - in the 2nd Patterson fight.

[rightsideup]

It was actually Tunney, who got that million dollar check.

His cut in the 2nd Dempsey fight came to $990.000 - so he gave Tex Rickard $10.000 in exchange for a one million dollar check.

The first boxer to get a full million dollar purse was Sonny Liston - in the 2nd Patterson fight.

This is correct although Jack was bringing prime dolor's as well,

[JAB5239]

It was actually Tunney, who got that million dollar check.

His cut in the 2nd Dempsey fight came to $990.000 - so he gave Tex Rickard $10.000 in exchange for a one million dollar check.

The first boxer to get a full million dollar purse was Sonny Liston - in the 2nd Patterson fight.

That is interesting and something I had no idea about. Great piece of information!

[GeneralZod]

i heard of Joe Louis being paid 100k to fight Rocky M.

[KO'er]

It is interesting that the new records in highest purses are being claimed by Mayweather, who is a welterweight.

The heavyweights set all the highest purses up to now.